Virtual Assistant vs Virtual Receptionist

We are living in a world where technology influences everything around us. From our shopping decisions to communication with our loved ones, every aspect of our life is influenced by technology. Same is the case with every business out there.

In fact, the ability to use technology to our advantage is often the only difference between a successful business and a failure. Simply put, there is one thing that is common among all successful entrepreneurs and businesses – they master technology, implement the best and make the most out of it to cut costs and increase revenue.

It is pretty much a standard recipe for success – get the most out of the available technology.

And when we talk about using technology to our advantage, there is one major recent revolution we cannot ignore – Virtual Staff.

With the advancement of technology during the last decade, virtual work and employees are now a norm in every industry. The last decade experienced a rise in virtual work mainly due to two reasons, it is affordable and saves time.

The virtual employees working for US based companies increased by 80% in last few years.

Do you know almost one-third of the total US workforce is working as virtual staff or freelancers? There is a reason behind these hard to believe statistics – the demand.

Businesses are in love with the concept of virtual staff – most prominently virtual assistants and virtual receptionists – making things easier and more affordable. Renne Warren, CEO and founder of Onboardly even termed virtual services as, “A Startup’s Secret Weapon”.

But in most cases, many young entrepreneurs are unable to distinguish between a virtual assistant and a virtual receptionist. Yes, the terms look alike, but they are not.

What is the Difference Between a Virtual Assistant and Virtual Receptionist?

Even when commonly mistaken as the same, there is a huge difference between what virtual assistants and virtual receptionists actually do.

A Virtual Assistant Interacts with YOU

A good Virtual assistant can do small tasks like organizing information, writing content for your blog or social media platforms, doing research, creating a schedule, updating excel sheets, and probably scheduling posts on social media. Most of their work is at the back-end doing small tasks with no direct interaction with your customers or clients.

Here is an interesting article about 10 things a business can outsource to a virtual assistant.

A Virtual Receptionist Interacts with Your CLIENTS

On the other hand, virtual receptionists excel at a specific job. They are often the first interaction with your clients and leads – this is why hiring the best virtual receptionist service is very important. In most cases, virtual receptionists are the first impression on your clients and filters out the important calls and information for you. This makes their job much more important than virtual assistants with almost no room for a mistake.

Simply put, when you can do some trial and error hiring virtual assistants, you must find the best virtual receptionist the first time. When a mistake from a virtual assistant is often remediable, a mistake from virtual receptionist can result in financial loss.

Why is it Important to Choose the Correct Service?

As already discussed, there is a difference in job duties performed by a virtual assistant and a virtual receptionist. The job performed by a virtual receptionist is more demanding, critical and requires more specific skills.

You cannot simply ask a virtual assistant to become a virtual receptionist. Some businesses try this and often pay the cost by losing business. The virtual assistant is a jack of all trades and must multi-task many jobs not being able to excel at them all.

For example, the virtual receptionists at OmniCall are trained to take calls, how to take a message, how to filter out the important calls, how to make sure the caller is greeted with a welcoming and happy tone, and how to build a long-lasting connection with a prospect. This is their only job which allows them to be their very best at all times.

On the other hand, virtual assistants are not trained for this stuff. If your business is working with virtual assistants, you still need a specialist… the “virtual receptionist” to handle your calls.

Pro’s and Con’s: Virtual Assistant or Virtual Receptionist

Well, we are pretty sure you have a good idea about each by now. Both virtual assistants and virtual receptionists look promising for your business but here are few reasons you may want to hire one immediately and few things that you may want to keep an eye on.

Pros

Virtual Assistants and Virtual Receptionists can be hired for a fraction of the cost of hiring an in-house employee.

You can pay according to the workload. For example, OmniCall allows our clients to choose a payment plan according to the number of incoming calls (minutes) they anticipate.

Virtual Receptionists can take calls when you are busy. They can schedule meetings, book an appointment, screen phone calls, and forward calls to the right staff members accordingly.

A good virtual receptionist service can have a major effect on the business growth, generating more leads and quality of customer service.

Cons

You have to hire a virtual assistant and virtual receptionist separately for back-end work and interacting with clients.

Why OmniCall Virtual Receptionists are the Best?

Male customer service representative activating a We can help you button on virtual screen.

We hope you have already decided to use the services of a virtual receptionist. Congratulations! Hundreds of thousands of growing businesses in the United States are doing the same.

Keeping up with the growing number of incoming calls is impossible if your business is expanding. At that time, you need a service like OmniCall that guarantees an uninterrupted 24/7 answer to incoming calls.

The experienced virtual receptionists at OmniCall are trained to provide a pleasant experience to the caller, to screen calls, to gather important information and to connect the callers to you at the right time. With OmniCall, you don’t have to worry about losing an important call anymore. With an ability to answer 100% of all your incoming calls, you can experience a growth you always wanted.

OmniCall offers you affordable virtual receptionist services that can bring your customer service to next level. Give us a call a today to learn more about our virtual receptionists and pricing. We are looking forward to adding one more client to our long list of happy clients.